


burnout

by broments



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, M/M, get in losers we're canceling the apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 20:18:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21021674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/broments/pseuds/broments
Summary: Just like with Thyma, Galo bends over Lio and tries to breathe fire and life back into his body.Just like with Thyma, it doesn't work.





	burnout

**Author's Note:**

> this ALSO isn't armorfucking, or beta'd but it IS jack's fault 100%, so please just take it. 
> 
> if anyone feels the summary is...too spoilery, just let me know? i checked with a few people and was given the "yeah this seems fine" ok but just ~ to be safe ~  
also worth noting: gueira/meis is just sort of mentioned, and galo/lio is also just...sort of mentioned tho there's some smoochin? it's not a shippy fic, it's plot, i'm sorry.

“Don’t disappear,” Galo begs, panic making his heart thud an uneven tempo all the way up in his throat. He doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know how to make this _ better _ and Lio...isn’t moving. His chest doesn’t rise and fall, and the flicker of flames inside him feels more like a lighter puttering in the wind than the bonfire Galo’s used to. 

Lio’d nearly saved Thyma’s life earlier, breathing fire into her lungs and maybe she was too far gone, maybe whatever awful experiments Kray had authorized were the reason for it. Galo doesn’t have anyone to ask about how it works, how to _ do _ this, but they’re Lio’s flames, right? That has to be enough. It’s a last-ditch effort when he doesn’t know how to use this power that he’s been granted, but it has to work. Determination has gotten him everywhere so far, so there isn’t any reason for it to fail now. He holds the spark in between his lips carefully and leans in, down, pressing his lips to Lio’s own too-cool ones. 

When he breathes out, he can feel the spark tickle at the back of his teeth, can feel it slide into Lio’s mouth, into his chest, not unlike blowing onto a tiny campfire to gradually build it up. For a moment, it catches. Galo can feel it, the way Lio’s chest hitches just a bit and the tiny flame tries to grow but there’s no kindling around it. It flares bright, trying, trying, _ trying _ to burn and then the flame fades because there’s nothing left to feed it. 

The inside of Galo’s mouth tastes like smoke and ash and for a moment, he’s back in the middle of the blaze, sobbing as he tries to get out the door, to bring his toys, anything with him but the smoke is too thick. It rises up, chokes him, slides its tendrils down his nose and throat and sticks. This isn’t his house and he isn’t a child any longer, but kneeling in the bowels of this monster that Kray’s created, holding Lio’s limp hand in his, it feels the same. 

It can’t happen like this. 

It can’t. Galo won’t _ allow it to happen like this. _ Furious, he cups the line of Lio’s jaw with his hand, gentle, careful, angles his chin up and _ breathes _ , tries to force the fire into him. There’s nothing, _ nothing. _ Lio doesn’t move, doesn’t twitch to raise his hand like Thyma did, doesn’t open his eyes to look up at Galo. A little desperately, voice cracking, “Lio, _ please _.” 

Rescuing comes second nature to him. Chest compressions and CPR. Galo’s hands lay over themselves onto Lio’s chest and he gets ready to push, but the moment there’s pressure, his hand slides right through. His palm scrapes the ground and around the hole he’s made, Lio’s already painfully pale skin fades and fades and _ fades _ and then there’s nothing. 

“Lio!” Galo isn’t sure whose voice that is, ragged and horrible, echoing loudly against the low moans from inside the pods. “Lio, no no, _ no _ , please, _ please _, we have to, we gotta…” 

Around them, the world shudders horribly, like the very planet underneath him feels the sense of loss he’s feeling. Galo hunches over himself, arms wrapping around his chest, trying to take any breath at all against the way his lungs don’t want to work, against the panic wrapping itself tightly around his throat. All of this, everything they went through, it can’t be for nothing. This can’t mean_ nothing _. 

The wailing around them gets louder and Galo can’t force himself to look up yet, can’t look at all of these people who he’s failed. Above them, a pod bursts open violently, and then another. There’s the loud clatter of boots on metal scaffolding and then twin thumps as boots appear among the wreckage next to him. 

“Boss—” One of them, Meis, Gueira, Galo doesn’t know, doesn’t trust himself to be able to tell right now, says it in this awful, wobbling way and Galo fists both hands into his pants, trembling. He’s never taken failure well but this is worse than a normal failure. The fate of the world, the entire planet— 

Above him, one of them makes a horrible, choked noise and Galo clenches his hands into fists so tightly they ache. 

“I’m _ sorry _ ,” he says, because that’s all he _ can _say. It doesn’t make this better, it can’t hope to make any of this better but it’s all he knows to say at this point. Around them, the ship shudders violently like the earth underneath it is threatening to crumble. 

From the side, Kray rises onto his knees uneasily, and levels a look at Galo, all raw disdain and spite. Galo doesn’t know if he’s ever hated someone properly before, but he thinks what he’s feeling right now might be something horrifically close to _ hate _. 

“You did this to the boss,” Meis says, low, almost conversational. Galo straightens his shoulders, because it’s true, he’d been the one dragging Lio along, made him come along in the mech, he’d— 

“The only thing I’m _ guilty _of is trying to save mankind. You’ve doomed all of us.” 

Boots crunch in the debris and Galo acts without thinking, reaching out to grab Meis by the arm, jerking him back from where flames lick around his hands, going for Kray. 

“You can’t,” Galo rasps, swallowing against the smoke caught in his throat. Lio’s flames trail down his hand, mingling with the ones spitting angrily from Meis’ own. It isn’t as if attacking would do any good; Kray’s flames are too strong for either of them. The certainty of it burns all on its own. “_ You can’t _. Burnish aren’t killers.” 

Both Meis and Gueira stop, the former trembling so hard Galo isn’t sure if he’s going to be able to stay standing, but they don’t attack. When Gueira’s fist swings out and knocks Kray to the ground, Galo watches and doesn’t feel any satisfaction from it.

* * *

They rebuild. 

They rebuild, because there’s nothing else they can do and acknowledging the ticking clock they’re fighting would just be losing the battle. 

Ignis tells them that world leaders are meeting, trying to figure out the best method to stop the Earth from imploding, but there’s only so long that they can keep it secret from everyone else. That’s not Galo’s problem to solve, though, so he asks Ignis to tell him if they manage to use any of Kray’s work on Promare to figure out a way to get to the core and turns his attention to something actually productive. 

Activity down in the core has mostly trailed off to a dull rumble and Galo takes everything he feels about this fucking mess and shoves it down as far away from the rest of him as he can manage. Lio’s flames still want to burn, but they have work to do, so Galo turns that desire to do _ something _ into useful action.   
Gueira and Meis teach him how to use the flames, how to create, how to take them and shape them in the palm of his hand, with his very intent, to make them take the form that he wants. Every time they do it, Lio’s, _ Galo’s _ flames reach out, like they want to be a part of theirs, like they want to burn together. 

He’s not prepared for the way Meis’ face crumples the first time they do it, staring at the flickering pinks, blues, and greens before he snuffs the flames out and tells Gueira to handle this instead.

Wielding the flames isn’t perfect at first. It’s not _ controlling _ them necessarily because they’re flames. Galo’s spent enough time fighting them to know that controlling isn’t what he should be doing. Instead of forcing them somewhere, it’s a matter of guiding them, feeding them with his own burning soul to achieve what he needs. He spends the first few weeks camped at Burning Rescue, mostly because he doesn’t trust himself to go home and losing his apartment to the world ending sounds marginally less shitty than accidentally burning it down.

“It doesn’t matter how long it takes,” Galo says quietly after they’ve spent hours teaching him how to keep flames from spilling out and over his hands at any given moment. It’s not perfect, but it’s progress. He’s failed once, for the first time ever, and he won’t allow himself to fail again. Lio wanted to see the world saved, wanted to see a better life for the Burnish and Galo is going to make that happen because he can’t. 

Lio dies, and the world goes on, no matter how unfair it is. 

Galo participates in rebuilding, goes on Burning Rescue calls, and every single night returns to the corner of Pine and 53rd, and figures out how he’s going to take the Parnassus apart piece by piece. By the end of three weeks, he’s melted and ripped away a ten square foot section, and that’s about when Ignis finds out about it and bars him from going anywhere near Parnassus. 

He tries to fight it, because it’s maybe a battle he can win, but he’s outnumbered and overruled, even Meis and Gueira agreeing that maybe, maybe it’s not the best use of his time. 

“The ship’s gonna melt if the world ends anyway, right?” Gueira says, lingering at Galo’s back like a shadow. Both of them have taken to staying close to him when they’re not handling what Lio would have wanted with the Burnish, and Galo’s...not sure what to do with that, really. He might be dumb, but he knows there’s something going on with the two of them. It’s not his business, and they make each other happy; that’s enough, right? The only thing worse than one person depending on him is two, but he won’t fail again. 

“The world’s not gonna end,” Galo says firmly, and both of them look up at him, eyes wide. It’s the first time he’s managed to say it out loud and once he’s said it, there’s no taking it back. “I don’t care what it takes. The world’s not gonna end, we’re gonna save it.” 

* * *

It’s a stupid idea, but they’ve tried all the smart ones and they’ve done exactly nothing, so Galo figures it isn’t like it could hurt. 

They’ve got two months until the volcanos explode and cover the earth in lava and everyone dies anyway, so really, they ought to just stop with the whole meeting thing and actually do something about it. 

Galo says as much at one meeting, and winds up booted out, which is really, extremely bullshit. He doesn’t have Kray to please or worry about anymore when it comes to dealing with this kind of thing, but Ignis looks at him behind those glasses and Galo grits his teeth so hard he’s worried they’re going to grind to dust. Ignis has done well by him, done more than Kray ever did so instead of fighting like he wants to, he excuses himself and jams both hands under a spray of water until they stop steaming. 

A ride won’t fix it, but it’ll get some of this awful, nervous energy out of him at least, so he pats his pockets once he’s sure he won’t melt his pants, or the keys, except — they’re not there. They’re not in his pockets, in his locker, and standing outside Burning Rescue, endlessly frustrated, he realizes he’s missing the obvious answer. He hasn’t ever tried to build anything large with Lio’s flames, but when he focuses all of his intent and want into the space in front of him, it’s the easiest thing he’s ever done. 

It’s not Detroit, but it _ is _ sleek and gorgeous and solid underneath his hand as he summons it. He’s worked enough on his own bike to know how to build her perfectly and when it sits in front of him, Galo just...looks at her for a moment. She’s painted in streaks of blue and green, edged in yellow around the rim of the wheel, the light from the streetlamps reflecting off of it eerily. 

“Oh. Hey, guess you figured out how to do that.” Behind him, a small hand settles itself on his back and Galo doesn’t flinch, but his shoulders tighten a moment before he forces himself to breathe out. “She’s… I mean, it’s...really cool, Galo.” 

Aina’s trying and Galo has to too. He composes himself with a breath and turns, swinging his arm around bony shoulders, relieved when she folds herself against his chest and hugs him, tight and fierce. 

“Yeah, she is, huh?” Galo agrees quietly, resting his cheek on top of her head. He can’t remember the last time he let someone hug him like this, but now that he’s doing it, it feels silly that he’s waited this long. It feels _ better _, even if everything still feels varying levels of awful overall. “I guess they named them after the cities they became Burnish in.” 

“God, that’s lame,” Aina huffs against his chest, startling a laugh out of him. “What if you became Burnish in a city like… like Ding Dong, Texas? Are you gonna call your bike Ding Dong?” 

Galo laughs louder, helplessly, trying to imagine either one of them calling their motorcycle _ Ding Dong, _and Aina, the best fucking person in the world doesn’t say anything when the laughter hitches, and he presses a wet cheek back against her hair. 

“Promepolis, I guess,” he says once he’s gotten himself under control again. Against his back, her hands stroke up and down his spine, a slow, soothing motion. 

“What? No, that’s _ lame _ .” Aina pulls back just enough to look at him and flicks the tip of his nose. “Call it something cool. What’d you call the mech Lio rebuilt you guys, again? I _ know _ you thought the name the Professor came up with was boring.” 

The name doesn’t ache as much as it used to, and Aina always says it without flinching. The others had tried to avoid it at first, but then _ Galo _ had started saying it aggressively, because Lio was _ dead _ not forgotten and he wasn’t going to be treated with kid gloves. 

“Lio de Galon.” Galo looks over at the bike and considers it a moment. The mech is long gone, but he’s still there, and Lio’s flames are what built it. That’s...fitting. Galo de Leon would also work but now that he’s said it out loud, he settles on it, deciding. “Hey. While they’re all in there talking about how they’re not gonna deal with this, do you wanna come with me? Gotta stop the end of the world. I could use some help.” 

Aina knocks her fist against his and settles onto the back of the bike easily after him, squeezing. “Thought you were never gonna ask.” 

* * *

There are, as far as scientists can tell, twenty-three days or ten years left on the planet before it hits its expiry date. It’s called a _ total extinction event _, apparently, though they’re still arguing about the name like it’s going to matter if lava covers the whole earth, so Galo doesn’t really care. 

Everyone is still talking about how they’re going to fix it instead of doing something about it. It’s driving Galo fucking crazy, because if four months of talking about this hasn’t fixed it, he’d think that maybe someone would try something else! 

Kray says that it’s not possible, though, and despite the fact that Kray has said a lot of stuff, most of it _ demonstrably false _, so no one does anything and Galo feels like all that anger inside him is going to burst free from his skin as easily as the flames he summons now. 

Rather than arguing in another meeting, he waits until it’s over and they’re dismissed and meets Aina outside. 

Then, he takes his bike, and drives. 

* * *

The mountain’s still freezing up here but he barely notices. When the snowflakes are shaken out of the trees, they hiss when they hit his skin. The first time they’d come up here, Aina had shoved a load of snow down the back of his pants and he’d shrieked so loud the birds had fled, sending a pile of snow down onto both of them. Out of the two of them, he’d been much warmer and drier and despite her betrayal (and his worry he might accidentally hurt her), he’d melted all the snow and warmed her up. 

They’ve been making steady progress getting down to the center of the crater, melting the water to steam a little further each time until they finally reached rubble. There hasn’t been anything really useful at this point but they keep looking because whatever was down here saved the world once, right? 

His feet steam faintly as he makes his way across the ice to where they’ve been digging; he’s not even trying to do it, it just _ happens _. The frustration in him builds and builds and the flames are the easiest outlet. No wonder Lio turned into a dragon and went rampaging; Galo’s dealt with just a few months of this and thinks he could do the very same thing. 

“Hey, can you make steps?” Aina asks, sliding to the edge behind him, looking down into the pit they’ve been digging. She’s bundled up in a jacket, the tip of her nose pink, these massive, ridiculous gloves on her hands. “Or, you could just drop me down there, I guess.” 

“I didn’t _ mean to _!” She’s never going to let him live that down. He makes the steps, though, and together they make their way down to the pit. 

His control still isn’t as good as the others’ but this isn’t something that needs control. It’s an outlet, a point of focus for him, where he can pour all of that anger and frustration into a single place and feel like he’s actually _ doing something about all of this _. Together, they move rubble, debris for hours. Aina doesn’t complain about the cold but an hour into it, he focuses, and builds a little space heater for her. It shouldn’t work: there’s no outlet to plug it into and there’s no cord, but it glows a dull gold and puts off tangible heat, so he’s not going to think about the physics, or...whatever, of it. 

They hit a thick piece of ice shoving rock apart like a wedge and Galo’s hands glow red-hot against the chill, steam rising, rock crumbling a little faster than he realizes. He’s able to stabilize it, but the ice melts and melts and melts and when he peeks down, there’s a...hole. 

“Oh, hey!” Aina shoves him out of the way and clicks her flashlight, shining it down into the pit below them. It’s impossible to tell how deep it is, but she boots a rock down the hole and both of them lean over, listening. 

“Sooo,” Galo says after waiting very patiently for ten seconds, hearing nothing. “That means it’s super deep, right?” 

“Dunno.” Aina shoves her flashlight at him and then picks up a bigger piece of rubble, which is pretty sound science, he figures, so he shines the light down and lets her drop it. Both of them lean over, heads tilted, and distantly there’s a _ crunch _ and clatter. 

“I have no idea how far that means it is,” Galo admits after a moment of squinting into the inky darkness. 

“Yeah, I don’t know either, I just wanted to see if we’d hear it.” Aina shrugs, stealing her flashlight back and then gestures to the hole. “Well? C’mon, we’re gonna do this, right?” 

There’s not really any other option, so Galo shrugs his shoulders and summons stairs down into the bowels of the lake. Around them, water dribbles down the sides of the hole they’ve made, so he fumbles a moment and then creates an umbrella and holds it over the both of them as they make their way down. 

“This was easier in an elevator,” Galo says halfway down (he thinks? Aina clicked her flashlight earlier and they couldn’t tell, so) peeking over the edge into the darkness. 

“...Wait, could you make an elevator this whole time and you made stairs?” Aina shines the flashlight right in his eyes and he nearly slips off the stairs in response, creating a railing to hold onto. “...Oops.” 

The weird thing is… this feels right. The lava had overflowed when the facility was destroyed, sure, but the closer they get in and down, the more like Galo feels he’s being drawn somewhere. They reach the bottom, finally, and he lifts a hand, spreading fire out along the ragged ceiling, lighting up a corridor. They keep walking because what else is there to do, ducking down a hall after prying open a door, walking, walking, walking, until they enter another part of the facility, and for a moment, he can’t quite believe what he’s seeing. 

There are variants of the robot they’d operated, together, scattered throughout the room. Dusty and ancient, even uglier than the last one, but still robots. Aina’s phone is out and recording content for Lucia while Galo gingerly picks his way across the room, sweeping a hand over a dusty metal flank, revealing dull red underneath. It’s not fancy, but it’s...something. 

“How long would it take Lucia to attach a drill to one of these?” Galo calls, glancing back to the sight of Aina already on the phone, holding it up with a smirk.

“WHERE ARE YOU? WHAT IS _ THAT _? GALO? WHERE ARE YOU!” Lucia’s impatience comes across perfectly despite the tinny speaker and he ambles back to look down at it, draping an arm around Aina’s shoulders when she shivers, hunching into her jacket. 

Once she’s done interrogating them and he can get a word in edgewise, he leans into the viewscreen and grins. “Hey, Lucia, you wanna help us save the world?” 

Explaining the plan to the others feels like something that’s going to be easy, all the way up until everyone is looking at him. It’s complicated and he absolutely should have let Lucia handle this, but she’d booted him up there because she doesn’t want to be the center of attention, so here he is. 

“We’re gonna take a drill to the center of the Earth past all the magma, talk to the Promare and stop the volcanos from erupting. Oh, hey, that’s actually pretty easy. Huh.” He knew he didn’t need any kind of paperwork, or notes. This is easy-peasy. No one looks as enthused as he’s kind of expecting given that they’re going to _ save the world, _ so he tries again. “Lucia’s pretty sure the drill’s gonna reach past all the rock magma and stuff, and then it’s just a matter of getting to the core and talking to them.” 

Very, very slowly, like he’s not even sure he wants to ask, Remi hazards, “Do the… do these Promare speak a language we know?” 

Galo looks to Meis and Gueira who probably know, and is rewarded with twin wide-eyed, blank expressions. “Uh.” Gueira looks at Meis, which isn’t promising.

“Oh, great,” Remi says cheerfully, picking his mug up and draining it like he wishes it were full of alcohol instead of lukewarm coffee. “‘Actually pretty easy,’ he says.”

The room erupts into arguing: Lucia demanding to know if Remi thinks she can’t build something that will work, Varys trying to tell everyone to calm down, Meis and Gueira who...Galo’s pretty sure are just yelling to yell and argue, but all of them go quiet when Ignis stands up. 

“When are you planning to try this?” he asks, quiet and deliberate. 

“...Well, hopefully sooner than seventeen days, since that’s realistically probably when...you know,” Lucia’s hands fist and then her fingers pop up, mimicking a boom. “We haven’t actually _ tested _ it to see how far down it goes, yet, but…” 

“Lio’s flames will protect me.” 

Every set of eyes turns to him and Galo squirms under all the attention, sheepishly rubbing the nape of his neck. It’s not like it’s a secret that he has Burnish powers, now, so they don’t need to look at him like he’s grown a third head. But then they just keep on looking and Galo has exactly zero patience left, so he shrugs and continues. 

“No one else had any better ideas,” he says. 

So, the next day, they drive the truck out. 

* * *

  


Galo doesn’t know why everyone was so worried, since the whole _ dig into the center of the earth using a drill _ thing actually worked and kind of rules. Meis and Gueira settle in behind him, powering it and shielding it while Galo drives and drives and drives, through layers of earth and rock and dirt. 

Eventually, the rock breaks and at the first hint of lava, Gueira leans over his shoulder and whistles. It’s not like they can see a whole bunch: the lava they’re boring through is red-hot and glowing against the power of their flames, which is kind of impressive and also slightly terrifying since if this doesn’t work it isn’t as easy as swimming up to the top. 

There’s no turning back now, or ever, though, so they keep going and going and going. 

Galo isn’t sure how long it’s been or how long it will take to reach the Promare, or if this is even going to work when he can’t really talk to them, but whatever this tug is makes him believe that he’s doing the right thing. If he’s not, well, they have what they _ wouldn’t _ let him call (but absolutely is) an Absolute Zero Chain Freezing Nuke, but he'd really rather not use it at all since he’s not sure it’s going to hurt the Promare.

“So you’re...planning on just asking it, uh, them, not to blow the planet up? That’s it? _ Nothing else _?” Gueira asks finally, flames wreathed around his hands. “I kind of thought that was for everyone else, but…” 

Galo shrugs. “I mean, yeah.” 

“We followed an idiot into the center of the Earth’s core,” Meis says, very, very slowly, with dawning realization. 

“You followed the world's number one firefighting idiot down into the Earth’s core!” Galo corrects. 

“Oh, shit,” Meis looks from him to Gueira. 

“We’re gonna die,” Gueira says in the exact same tone. 

“You won’t,” Galo says with all the certainty he can muster from the core of himself, his certainty as molten as the lava around them. “We’re gonna save the world, remember?” 

When they reach the Lucia’s calculated, even Galo’s sweating. Lio’s flames had nothing on the sheer oppressive heat surrounding them. Meis and Gueira have both stripped down to their pants and Galo was already there, but he’s got his gloves off and sweaty hands keep sliding over the controls. 

“Here.” Galo doesn’t know why, but it just...feels right. The machine rumbles to a halt and Galo stands in the mech, peering out from the bubble into their surroundings. It’s right, he knows it’s right… he just doesn’t know why. Aside from being obscenely hot, there’s nothing like, _ really _ alien about it? It’s lava. Galo’s not a geologist or whatever but most planets probably have lava, right? “...Maybe I gotta get out?” 

“Yeah, maybe,” Meis says with the tone of someone who isn’t really paying attention and is just agreeing, trying to look out into the lava surrounding them.

Gueira's voice rises above, startled. “Wait _ what? Get out?” _

“Yeah, I’m gonna try getting out,” Galo decides, and pops the hatch to step out of it and push the wall of protective flames out. Behind him, the door slams shut and both Meis and Gueira are gesturing rudely at him so he turns around and looks into the wall of magma. Without thinking, he reaches a hand up, flames licking across his fingers in response to all the heat, the Promare inside him wanting to burn as bright and as fierce as what’s around them but there’s nothing _ to _ burn. 

The moment his flames touch against the wall, the magma around them trembles. Galo doesn’t know how he knows it, but he can feel it, like this massive beast under his feet slowly unfurling. There isn’t any kind of indication of arms or legs, so Galo picks the part of the magma that looks most like an eye, and shouts. “Hey, can you understand me?” 

If it can’t, it’s...probably not going to answer so that’s not really helpful. Galo frowns, foot tapping against the ground their flames have made. There’s no answer but it also doesn’t have eyes or a mouth, so he’s not really sure how he’s supposed to communicate with it. Gingerly, he presses his hand back to the wall of flames intending to see if he can get it to react again, and then jolts when that same low rumble happens around them. This time he doesn’t pull his hand back, he puts the other up next to it and the lick of Lio’s, _ his _ flames feels almost like it recognizes what’s around them. 

For a moment, Galo feels like he’s home. There’s no other way for it, the feeling that washes over him like he just walked into the door of his old apartment, his mom and dad and little sister waiting for him. It feels exactly like that, but the feeling isn’t _ his. _It’s more like a flicker of impressions, feelings.

“Uh,” Galo pokes at his palm of flames curiously, and when it grows a mouth and two beady eyes, he nearly drops it in surprise. “What the hell! You’re— oh, hey! You’re one of them, you’re a Promare. If you like being called that? I guess the Prof probably didn’t have a chance to clear that with you guys.” 

The Promare doesn’t answer, but a second licks down from the wall and drips onto his hand, settling with the other Promare. He’s got two of them in his hand, and they both have little faces, which is...weird. Kinda cute, actually. It’s probably rude to call these aliens cute, though, so he holds that back, barely.

“Hi?” Galo attempts because he at least has some manners. They seem to be listening, at least, so he sucks in a breath and starts. On the drive down (the drill down? That’s weird.) he’d worried about what he was going to say to it, but now that he’s here, surrounded by the warmth of it and it’s easy. “I know what happened wasn’t fair. I know you guys didn’t choose to be here, but even if you did, everything that’s happened is… we’re better than this. I can promise we’re better than this. The people who hurt hurt all of the Burnish, hurt everyone, they’re gonna pay for it, too. I can promise that. But there are a whole lot of other people out there, people like them, people who are Burnish who aren’t gonna live if all these volcanos go off. You understand, right? You guys are here, but you can’t keep living here if you destroy the planet. There won’t be anything _ left _ to live on.”

Lio was right when he said that the Promare talk to the Burnish; the steady hum of _ burn, burn, so hungry want to burn _ has changed into something else when he stands there, surrounded by the rest of them. They’re still hungry, but their hunger can be tempered. 

“We can let you burn, but we gotta do it the right way,” Galo coaxes, not quite sure if it’s working or not but the thrum of the Promare’s will quiets, just a touch. “I’m a firefighter, y’know? We handle stuff burning all the time, but if you burn too much or too fast it’s not gonna help. If you run out of stuff to burn, what happens?” 

The smaller fire in his palm shrinks until it’s nothing but a little whisp of smoke and then flares bright again, tickling at his palm. The larger doesn’t move, but weirdly, Galo knows it’s listening.

“Yeah, that’s no good. We’re trying to _ prevent _ that from happening. But we need your help, too. Okay?” He has no idea if they really understand what he’s asking, but Lio’s Promare flickers in a way he’s pretty sure is a nod, which is about as good as it gets. The hunger fades bit by bit to something a little more manageable, the lava around them quivering like it’s resettling itself around them. Behind him, the mech trembles and the flames around them flare bright and brief, the shield holding. _ Trying trying trying _, the little voice says. 

“One more thing,” Galo says abruptly before he can stop himself. The flame shifts on his hand and Galo steels himself, curling his hand protectively around it. “I couldn’t save him. If you guys...feel the pain they feel when they’re hurt, then you felt mine, right?” 

Lio’s Promare sinks against his palm, flattening, going cool blue edged in green. _ Hurts _. 

“Yeah,” Galo agrees quietly, and tentatively reaches out to poke the little flame. The point where his finger comes into contact goes pink and slowly the Promare comes back to full color. How is he supposed to ask what he wants to ask? “Can you...ask the others to bring him back? Lio Fotia. I still have his flames and he shouldn’t have…” 

Lio shouldn’t have died, not when so many people rely on him, he shouldn’t have died, not when he was trying to do the right thing. Galo swallows against the lump in his throat. It wasn’t fair, but none of this was. “I just thought… I mean, you’re a star? That’s also a bunch of...Promare? The way the Prof talked about you, you were capable of so much stuff, so—” 

And, okay, maybe it’s a little manipulative? But the larger fire around his wrist pulses once, twice, and then slicks off his hand into the rest of the lava.

“...guess not,” Galo mutters, hating that he feels cheated, disappointed when he doesn’t have any right to be. Swallowing against the lump in his throat, he steps back from the wall of flame, feeling Lio’s promare itch at his fingers, swirling around them. There’s nothing to burn here and it wouldn’t _ help _, but the desire is there all the same. “Well. At least I’ve still got you, huh?”

Behind him, there’s a...thump. There’s no other way to describe it. Galo wonders if the drill finally melted off and hit the ground, except it’s not _ that _, there’s a pile of naked limbs on the ground, a splash of green hair lit up in tones of pink and orange from the flames around him. Even with the wall of steel surrounding Meis and Gueira from the mech, he hears their shouts but can’t bring himself to look back. 

One step, another. It doesn’t feel real, but when he crouches down and presses his hand to Lio’s cheek to tilt his head, the Promare inside him flares, so hot he knows it _ is _. Lio’s real, a tangible mess of naked limbs cradled by the flames protecting them. He doesn’t need the Promare inside him to tell him what to do. This part is easy. Gently he presses two fingers under Lio’s chin and tips his head up.

When Galo exhales the fire this time he feels Lio drink it in, sucking in a slow breath. The fire licks behind Galo’s teeth as it finds its way home and then, abruptly, a hand is winding into his hair and it’s _ Lio’s _ licking into his mouth, holding him still as he kisses him within an inch of his life. A flicker of flame lingers like cinnamon on his tongue. 

Galo’s startled noise gets swallowed into this kiss and a little belatedly he manages to get with the program, fitting his hand to Lio’s jaw, trying to kiss him _ back _ . The moment it happens, Lio pulls back, which is a little disappointing and mostly exciting. Being disappointed he’s not kissing Lio any longer is a way better reason to be disappointed than _ Lio’s dead _. The Promare’s gone; the fire inside him feels like his again. 

Feeling like himself again is a relief, but Lio’s flames are still protecting them. The awareness of the heat isn’t even a portion of how hot it probably really is, especially with how Meis and Gueira had taken it. Sweat beads at his forehead, his back, slides down like he’s suddenly walked into a massive sauna and that’s… good, right? The Promare went back to Lio, it _ worked _, Lio was alive, and a little bit of it was protecting both of them. Somehow the lava was less threatening than Kray’s flames. 

“How did you even...” Lio starts, and then stop himself, looking at the massive mech enclosed in flames behind him. “Of course.” 

“That’s _ twice now _ ,” Galo tells him, indignant. “More than twice. What part of firefighter do all of you not understand! You’re coming with me and we’re saving the world and _ then _ you’re gonna tell me how you’re gonna fix this.” 

“Galo...” Lio doesn’t even bother to look remotely regretful at making a firefighter light multiple fires. When he pushes himself up to sit upright, leather flares up from his toes to his waist, faster than Galo expects. He’s decent, but the pale skin of his chest is still distracting and abruptly, Galo remembers pushing his hands through his chest, hitting the ground. 

Sucking in a sharp breath, Galo looks away. 

“The Promare can’t stop the volcanos entirely, Galo,” Lio says quietly, pressing his hands to the ground to slowly work himself to his feet, wobbling, unsteady like a baby deer. Having limbs again must be weird. “They can hold it off, but we have to help, too. I know what we have to do. We have to let them burn out, just once.” 

“Wait, can _ you _ understand them?” Galo asks incredulously. In front of him, Lio’s knees buckle and Galo jolts forward, winding an arm underneath Lio’s knee to heft him up. Lio doesn’t argue, hooking an arm around Galo’s shoulders, trying to hold himself upright, so Galo adjusts his hold to make it a little less cradling and a little more support. 

“You can’t?” Lio gives him an unreadable look just as they make their way up the step to the mech, the door sliding open. In Galo’s arms, Lio’s body goes tense and then he’s stiff, pushing his way out of Galo’s arms onto unsteady feet. 

“Boss!” Meis and Gueira’s shouts drown out anything he was going to attempt to say as they step up, Galo lingering behind Lio just in case while the door hisses shut behind them. It’s _ so much better here _, even if it’s still ridiculously hot. 

“How did—”

“What _ happened _—”

Their overlapping chatter is so familiar at this point that it’s almost its own kind of soothing. Galo slides into the pilot’s seat and angles it to the surface. He can _ feel _ the edge of the Promare, like a flicker of it, a match instead of the bonfire. Just enough to protect him, enough to get them back to the surface, where they can fix _ all of this _. 

A compartment opens and closes and Galo cranes his neck around the seat to see Meis snagging one of his spare Burning Rescue jackets, hitching it over the shirt that Lio’s pulling on unsteadily. He’s still graceful, but he’s slower, each move deliberate. If the Promare brought him back, then did that mean he became a part of the star? Or did the Promare just _ remake _him, like a clone or something? Oh, yeah, no, he’s not going to think about that. Lio’s Lio, and he’s alive. That’s what matters.

Blessedly, distraction comes in the form of Lio stepping in front of him, holding one of the emergency water kits with a straw punched into it. 

“Do you want to sit?” Galo asks in a rush, standing up, keeping a hand on the wheel, attention on what’s effectively just super hot rock instead of a road to drive on. It’s not like he’s going to hit anything so he doesn’t really need to pay attention. Right? He hopes not, Lio’s blocking his view. “There’s nothing out there, right? 

“We’re the most dangerous things out here besides the Promare,” Lio says, very patiently, which is a good enough answer. Galo stands and gestures wildly until Lio sits down heavily and takes a pull from the drink. From the jacket’s pocket, he fishes another one out and tosses it at Galo. “Meis and Gueira said you were _ insistent _ about hydration.” 

Galo nearly jams his straw through the other side; the metal puckers before the straw is realigned with a twist of his wrist. 

“Thanks! You’re human, right?” Galo cocks his hip as he leans against the chair. Lio twists to do some kind of bonelessly predatory lounge in the chair and Galo’s heart skips a beat as Lio looks up at through the fringe of green and blonde. Struggling to keep the train of thought going, Galo continues, “You get thirsty when it’s hot, too.” 

“_ And _ hungry,” Meis slides up behind them and passes two of the ration kits to Lio and Galo, tossing one to Gueira, and then tearing open one for himself. They’re not great but they’re also not the worst, generally meant for long shifts where they don’t have time to break to go get a proper meal. 

Galo hadn’t...seen him eat before, earlier. In the cave, Lio had either already eaten, or more realistically, hadn’t eaten at all until everyone else finished. He peels his open while watching Lio do the same, and once he’s assured that Lio’s actually going to eat, digs into his own. 

“How did you…” Lio starts, and then seems to realize there are countless ways to finish that question. How did they get to the core? How did they have a machine able to drill down? How were they protected from the core when Kray was so certain that there was no way down here. 

“Uh,” Galo says, trying to figure out what level of detail is going to work here, only for Gueira to jump in.  
  
“_Somebody_ decided we were going to drive to the Earth’s core to stop the world from exploding,” he says and Galo makes a face at him, because they _did it,_ didn’t they?

“The Earth’s—” Lio’s nose wrinkles and Galo’s so hopelessly charmed he doesn’t know what to do with himself. Is this what Lio’s like early in the morning or is this just a ‘coming back to life and suddenly having a body’ thing? He’s going to get to find out and that thought is thrilling all on its own. “Alright.” 

That’s way less of a fight than Galo expects. In the chair, Lio sinks back and the three of them realize what’s about to happen a moment before it does. Lio slumps back, eyes rolling back in his head, nearly sliding boneless out of the chair. 

“I got him, I got him,” Gueira says, scooping Lio up with a little oof, cradling him against his chest. Lio doesn’t move at the jostling, which Galo thinks might be concerning if it weren’t for the fact that neither of them look concerned, just...protective. They’d know best. “We’ll keep an eye on him until we get to the surface.” 

Galo wants to protest, sure, but gets it. He’s the one who needs to drive and the other two need to keep the shielding up; they’re the best bet for taking care of Lio, not Galo. “Got it.” 

When they reach the surface, the whole team’s waiting for them. The flames fall from around the mech and the drill, mostly melted at this point, finally falls off and hits the ground with a squelch and hiss as superheated metal burns the grass. _Oops_, Galo mouths.

“_Well _ ?” Lucia asks impatiently when no one else says anything, the four of them pouring out of the mech into the sunlight. Aina’s eyes go wide when she sees Lio, glancing from Galo to Lio and back again, gesturing wildly. “He_llo _ ? Wasn’t he de- sorry, Galo, but _ dead_?” 

Galo shrugs, not quite sure what to say. “Temporarily?” 

“_T__emporarily,_ he says.” 

“Well, he was and now he’s not, so—” 

“How do we stop the volcanos from exploding, Galo,” Ignis cuts in over Lucia’s incredulous tone, arms crossed over his chest.

Lio steps forward, dwarfed by the massive jacket, looking marginally steadier after an hour long coma and another three packages of water. “Their combustion wasn’t complete. We need to let them burn just once. Galo.” 

“What is it with you and tryin’ to get me to start fires, huh?” Galo asks fondly, looking down at Lio as he steps closer, taking the hand that’s outstretched to him. Lio’s hand is solid and warm in his own. This time, he doesn't hesitate to squeeze it, knowing Lio's going to stay solid under his hands.

“They need to burn. Their combustion was incomplete,” Lio tells him, eyes bright, face determined. Galo’s never loved the sight of something more in his life. “That’s what we’re going to let them do. You’re gonna do what you do best, and help put it out.” 

It’s no more absurd than going to the core of the planet to talk to a bunch of volcano aliens, right? He’s followed Lio to the center of the Earth and back; he’ll follow Lio here, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> “How did they drill into the core so fast? How did galo not die when he was in the lava?” 
> 
> I don’t know karen it’s a fucking fanfiction 
> 
> Discord plotting/things that were in the original version of this story but written out when I changed things: 
> 
> Me:  
galo running on 10 seconds of sleep post hitchhiking his way back to promepolis  
and trying to explain to aina/remi who to contact that lio’s alive/he has him  
the-- the guys! [GESTURES WILDLY TO INDICATE MEIS AND GUEIRA’s HORNS AND ARMOR ]  
with the!! you know the things!!! guys!!!!
> 
> Jack:  
galo are you......... talking about the burnish pair he worked with ???  
they have names  
we all learned them!
> 
> Me:  
IF YOU KNEW WHO I MEANT JUST CALL THEM  
Also lbr his phone melted on the way in tho so he has to hitchhike  
Hey hi thanks for stopping please ignore my naked friend the fire aliens inside the earth’s core just remade him it's fine  
[throws a jacket over lio's junk] wow thanks for picking us up how’s your day??


End file.
